Merkourios, Utrecht Journal of International and European Law, has appointed Jeffrey Van Detta, Associate Dean for Scholarship and Professor of Law at AJMLS, to its Permanent Board of Referees.

Merkourios is an Open Access, peer-reviewed, student-led law journal, which focuses on international and European law.The Journal provides immediate, open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the community of scholars and to a wider public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Merkourios is affiliated with Utrecht University and Urios. Utrecht University, located in Utrecht, Netherlands, is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. Seehttp://www.uu.nl/EN/Pages/default.aspxUrios is the Utrecht Study Association for International and European Law. Founded in 1981, Urios has a membership of 250 students, which includes both Utrecht students and exchange students. The mission of Urios is to introduce students to International and European law on a more practical level, as explained on its webpage at http://www.urios.org/1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=55

The Referee Board is a new initiative that the 2012-2013 Board of Editors of Merkourios has inaugurated. By establishing the Permanent Board of Referees, Merkourios aims to further develop the Journal by achieving higher standards of academic quality and by enhancing cooperation within its network of referees and authors.

Members of the Permanent Board of Referees report their professional opinions on the academic quality of articles that the student Editors have previously reviewed and identified as worthy of further consideration for publication. Rendered on the basis of anonymous peer review, the reports from the Journal’s Referees are a determinative factor in the Journal’s final publication decisions.

Merkourios appointed Associate Dean Van Detta as a member of the Permanent Board of Referees based on his expertise and scholarly publications in the areas of Trans-National Commercial Law, International Business Transactions, International Civil Litigation, Private International Law, Employment and Labour Law, and Jurisprudence. Associate Dean Van Detta teaches courses encompassing those areas in AJMLS’s J.D. Program, American Legal Studies LL.M. Program, and Employment Law LL.M. Program.

“I believe very passionately in the kind of scholarly work carried on by Merkourios, in which both law students and experienced faculty collaborate in evaluating and publishing scholarship of the highest calibre,” Associate Dean Van Detta commented. In his view, “that is an ideal combination of talents, perspectives, and expertise for the dynamic areas of legal scholarship which Merkourios embraces.”